Brian Jones

This is not a thread to bash the MDC. As one can see from reading the attached article, they did their job. Shame on the Jefferson County Prosecutor's office for basically letting a convicted felon off the hook, as well as House Agriculture Policy Committee chair Jay Houghton and the rest of the House Agriculture Policy Commitee for being turds and killing a bill that would have increased penalties of convicted poachers. VERY DISAPPOINTING............... http://www.news-leader.com/story/news/crime/2016/05/27/missouri-poacher-fined-only-9950-killing-black-bear/84986704/

Also, as Wrench has mentioned before, I wouldn't buy any used outboard without first checking the compression.

There's not a boat made that can run as shallow as a jet boat needs to be able to run and yet still take on the choppy conditions of a lake. That being said, our 1752 SS handles the choppy water of the lake better than our 1650 Alumacraft did. I think it has to do with the longer rake which changes where the wakes hit the SS as opposed to the shorter rake of the Alumacraft. As Seth said, though you'll gain some improvement in ride with a mod v, you're not going to get the ride of a glass boat from any aluminum flat bottom or mod v river runner. I wouldn't be afraid to run our 1752 on any of the lakes you mentioned if the conditions were right. But I'd definitely not try it on a summer weekend; nor at anytime would I get more than five or six miles from my put in.

Not all of these are fishing areas but all are great places to explore the outdoors. St. Joe State Park by Park Hills, St. Francois State Park just north of Bonne Terre, Elephant Rocks, Johnson Shut ins, Taum Sauk Mountain, Fort Davidson, Red Bluff, Meramec State Park.

Congrats Mitch. Best pic of a 20 incher this year.

Though it has been years since I've seen one, there are apparently still a few around the house; or at least the MDC believes so. They asked our neighbor to participate in a program aimed at improving their habitat by cutting back the brush and overgrown areas to expose more of the glades. I'm fairly certain they did the same thing a few years back in St. Joe Park as well.

Is that at Palisades? Having a hard time figuring out the location from the pic.

I don't feel like they are spawning yet as none of the ones I caught Monday sprayed milt when handling them. In my past fishing experiences this time of year that has been a pretty good indicator of whether or not the fish were spawning.

When I think of how many baits these fish see at certain times of the year and how many of us unknowingly fish the same holes either in front of or behind the others, I am in awe of the smallmouth's resilience. It also shows just how important catch and release fishing is as there have been several "Master Angler" sized fish caught and obviously released from this stretch in the past few days.

WOW!!! Glad that thing had lost some intensity by the time it rolled through the Lead Belt.

Don't worry Ham. I am NOT a snake person.

Had a neat encounter with this guy Friday while mushroom hunting. Got him to hiss, spread out his head and rear up. But I guess we weren't intimidating enough to get him to play dead. Only the second one I've seen in my life. First one was around 1984..... I think.......

Took advantage of the last day of our district's "spring fever reliever" yesterday and had a good trip. 15 "keepers" all together on various baits. Only three over 15 inches; including these two which were both a smidgen over 18 inches and 3.43 and 3.04 pounds. All the others were 14 inches and under which I'm thinking were mostly males. (?????). Water temp ranged from 68 to almost 70 and was a little off colored possibly from two days of non-stop boat traffic.

Yup...... And no one living today ever owned a slave or was a slave......Yup.......... Rape and murder?? Yup........ The fault of mean ol' whitey also.............. Especially in the inner city where all the Caucasians live................... Yup.................

And that was just as wrong and unlawful as the antics of this black lives matter bunch. The difference between the two is that one was eventually prosecuted, and shattered into several smaller groups that are about as vicious as a 15 year old Chihuahua with no teeth. And the other, well..................................................... My apologies for derailing this thread even further.

Great fish. Congrats.

What year and HP?? If the compression and ignition are good, and the lower unit lube is clean, everything else is fixable.

We're on our third Yamaha. All have been two strokes, ranged between 1985 and 1997 model years and have been jets. Absolute pleasure to own and operate and would recommend one in a heartbeat. Brother in law has a 115 four stroke on his pontoon and it has been as reliable as the two strokes. Plenty of torque to pull a skier out of the water. Enough power to cruise along in the 20's (24 foot pontoon), and crazy easy on gas. I believe his is a 2006 model and he's experienced none of the problems that have been common with the four strokes.

If it's any consolation, today (Saturday) wasn't any better. Two of us caught maybe 8 "keepers" and only two of them were smallmouth. Biggest of the day was a two pound largemouth. Water temp was almost 59 when we put in and almost 63 when we took out at 2:00 Made it home in time to take a round in the mushroom woods. Fortunately it was much better than the fishing......................

I love the dude perfect guys. Kicking myself for missing the premier of their TV show on CMT last night.

Nope. If you want wading water, you'll need to go upstream about 30 miles. Keep in mind the Big is running pretty full right now from the rains that were earlier in the week so wading is going to be problematic in most places IMO.

Not to de-rail this topic further, but I always thought that I was the reason he joined this forum...... You too, Mr. Bigs, for that matter.................

That's good advice Joe. I've been racking my brain all winter trying to figure out how to carry at least two rods while wading. And truthfully (like you said) it would be far more trouble trying to pack multiple rods as opposed to just re-tying baits. Thanks for bringing this to light for us more simple minded fellers who are try to drive round pegs in square holes.

That ol' gal would go a long ways on Beaver. Hope you can put one like that in the livewell.

Like comparing apples to oranges.